


Constant as the Northern Star

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Prompt Fills 2018 [25]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Cedric Diggory Lives, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-10 10:00:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14734832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Atlantis, Ronon Dex (+/ any), looking to the stars to guide you home."Ronon is in his first year as a Runner and he meets a boy named Cedric, a boy who appeared in a flash of sickly green light, a boy who was supposed to die. Cedric wants to get home, and the only way is the stars. Ronon agrees to help him.





	Constant as the Northern Star

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SherlockianSyndromes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockianSyndromes/gifts).



> Thanks to the spectacular Brumeier for her speedy beta.

Ronon figured he had a few hours to rest, find some food, bind up his wounds before he had to move on, before the Wraith caught up to him. He stumbled away from the gate, climbed the nearest tree to get the lay of the land, find shelter and, most importantly, water.

Green light exploded overhead.

When it vanished, a boy about Ronon’s age was lying on the ground. He wore strange black and yellow clothes and was holding a little wooden stick.

Was he dead? Was that some kind of Wraith beam? Was he another Runner? Had the Wraith been unable to feed on him too, set him free?

Ronon scrambled down from the tree and knelt beside the boy.

The boy had dirt smeared across his face, bruises around his throat and one wrist. He’d been held captive, had run through some outdoor area. His skin was pale, and he had a very square jaw, heavy dark brows, red-brown hair, but a soft, pink mouth. Ronon held a hand over his nose and mouth. He was breathing.

Ronon prodded him tentatively.

The boy sat up with a gasp and nearly hit Ronon in the face.

Ronon recoiled sharply, executed a backward roll and came up in a crouch, ready to fight.

The boy pressed a hand to his chest. “Bloody hell - I’m alive. Where am I?” He cast about wildly, and then he saw Ronon. “Where are we?”

“An uninhabited planet,” Ronon said. He’d memorized many gate addresses for the purposes of trade or tactical retreat. He figured he’d try them all, learn new ones when he could.

The boy stared at him. “Planet. As in - not Earth?”

Ronon shook his head. “No. Never heard of Earth.”

The boy pressed a hand to his forehead. “Maybe I _have_ died.”

Ronon swatted him on the arm.

The boy recoiled with a small cry. “Ouch!”

“You’re alive.”

“Somehow.” The boy pushed himself to his feet, dusted himself off. He never let go of his wooden stick.

“Why do you think you shouldn’t be alive?”

“The strange little man cast the Killing Curse at me,” the boy said. “I heard it. All seven syllables. Saw the sickly green light wash over me and then - I woke up here. I shouldn’t have woken up.”

“There was a green light,” Ronon said, “before you appeared. The man who cast this killing curse at you - was he a Wraith?”

The boy looked puzzled. “What’s a Wraith?”

“You’ve never heard of the Wraith?”

“You’ve never heard of Earth.” The boy wiped his hand on the thigh of his trousers, then offered it to Ronon. “I’m Cedric, by the way. Cedric Diggory.”

“Ronon Dex.”

“So, Ronon Dex, if you’re not from Earth, where are you from?”

“My planet is called Sateda.”

Cedric tested the word. “Never heard of it, but then I’ve never heard of people being from other planets, and I’ve never had a Killing Curse cast at me before, so - you said this was an uninhabited planet.”

“So far.”

“It’s not Sateda, then, obviously. Is it easy to get back to Sateda? Do we need a spaceship or - or something?”

“I can’t go back to Sateda.”

“Why not?”

“The Wraith made me a Runner.”

“I don’t know what that means.” Cedric, now that he was awake, was quite animated.

“The Wraith couldn’t feed on me. They put a tracker in me. They hunt me for fun.”

Cedric’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean, they couldn’t feed on you?”

“The Wraith - they drain the life out of you.”

Realization crossed Cedric’s face. “A Dementor, you mean.”

“So you have heard of them.”

“Maybe - maybe we have different words for them,” Cedric said. “Where’s your wand?”

“What wand?” Ronon asked, suspicious. Was that some kind of come-on?

Cedric waved his wooden stick. “Don’t you have one of these?”

“Why would I want one of those?”

“To do magic,” Cedric said.

Ronon stared at him. “Magic.”

Cedric nodded. And then horror crossed his face. “Bloody Hell. You’re a Muggle.” He cast about him again, as if he expected someone to pounce on him. But then he turned back to Ronon. “Never mind that. So, Ronon, you’re a Runner. Meaning you always run away from the Wraith. But there are no Wraith here.”

“They’ll come eventually,” Ronon said. “I was looking for water and a place to rest before you showed up.” Then he narrowed his eyes. “How do I know you’re not a Wraith-worshipper?”

“I suppose you don’t,” Cedric said, “but now that you mention it, I am quite thirsty myself, after having spent ages running for my life while magical shrubbery tried to kill me. Once I’ve drunk and gotten my bearings, I will be on my way, and you can be on yours.”

He didn’t have a canteen or any supplies with him, just his clothes and his wooden stick - wand. He held his hand out, laid his wand flat on his palm. Ronon saw it was rounded, tapered at one end, had strange symbols carved into the wider end.

 _“Point me_ water,” he said.

Ronon snorted. That was -

He backed up a step.

The wand spun on Cedric’s palm until it was pointing into the trees. Cedric started for the trees, adjusting his course so the wand was always pointing straight forward.

“Where are you going?” Ronon called after him.

“To find some water.”

Cedric was a few inches shorter than Ronon, much narrower across the shoulders, skinny and lanky and almost pretty. He’d never survive against a Wraith. Ronon scrambled to follow him.

The wand twitched like a needle on a compass, and Cedric kept tromping after it. Ronon dogged his heels, one hand on the hilt of a knife the entire time, but sure enough, they emerged from the trees and on the bank of a clear, fast-flowing stream.

Ronon knelt to scoop water out of the stream, but Cedric was holding his wand like it was some kind of pointer, waving it - and speaking what sounded like the language of the Ancestors.

A leaf on the ground transformed into a cup right before Ronon’s eyes.

Cedric knelt, scooped it up, and filled it. Drank deeply. He offered Ronon the cup.

Ronon stared at it, wary.

Cedric waved his wand, spoke again, and another leaf turned into an identical cup. He nudged it toward Ronon. “There. Have one of your own.”

Ronon reached for the cup, afraid it would turn back into a leaf when he touched it, but it was solid, wooden, smooth like it had been sanded and polished. He used it to drink his fill.

“Now,” Cedric said, “I want to go back to Earth. I studied Astronomy extensively in school, so I’m much familiar with the composition of my own solar system, but as far as I understand it, no other planets in my solar system are inhabited, so we must be in a different solar system. Unless some denizens on your planet do have magic and shield any signs of life from Muggle probes?”

“You talk a lot,” Ronon said.

Cedric flushed, his cheeks a fetching shade of pink. “Yes, I do - it’s how I think things through. Well, if we’re in the same solar system, the constellations should look the same at night. So we ought to wait for nightfall and see what we can see. How many moons does your planet have?”

“Three,” Ronon said.

Cedric frowned. “Mercury and Venus have no moons, Mars has two, Earth has one, and all the other planets have upward of five moons.”

“Sateda has two suns,” Ronon offered. If Cedric was an Ancestor and could use his wand to make, well, anything, he’d be a useful ally.

Cedric stared at him. “Bloody hell. I’m not even in my own solar system. I reckoned I’d be able to apparate home if I were in the same solar system, but -”

His knees buckled, and he sank to the ground.

Ronon hurried to his side. “Hey, calm down. Look, we can go through the Ring of the Ancestors and look for a familiar night sky for you, all right? So at least you can get home.”

It was madness, taking on another person when the Wraith were tracking him constantly.

Cedric was hyperventilating.

Ronon slapped him.

It didn’t help.

Ronon shook him.

He kept on panting.

Ronon had to get him to stop breathing, reset his breathing cycle.

He leaned in, kissed Cedric.

For a moment, Cedric froze. And then he kissed Ronon back, slow and easy and deep. He’d definitely kissed before. Ronon had to pull back when he was out of breath. Cedric gazed at him, eyes wide.

“Well,” he said, “it’s good to know that snogging isn’t unique to Earth.”

“Come on,” Ronon said. “Let’s go find somewhere safe to eat.”

Cedric nodded. “Of course. Except I don’t have any food. D’you have any food?”

Ronon, satisfied Cedric was calm, filled his canteen from the stream. “Some. Not a lot.”

“That’s all right. I can make it - more.” Cedric pushed himself to his feet. “Where is somewhere safe?”

“Somewhere close to the gate, so we can get away fast if the Wraith come,” Ronon said. “Somewhere they can’t see us or hear us.”

“Oh. All right. I suppose a cave or something?”

“Maybe.”

“Or I could just put some Disillusionment charms on us,” Cedric said.

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Magic, so the Wraith can’t see us,” Cedric said. “I admit I don’t know the Patronus Charm, which is notoriously effective for dealing with Dementors - Wraith. But I know some decent shield spells.”

Together they headed away from the stream and back toward the gate - Ronon had been careful to mark their path just in case.

They picked a spot behind a tree with a large trunk. Cedric waved his wand and spoke the language of the Ancients, and he said he’d cast several “charms” so no one would see them or hear them.

Ronon dug into his pack for some rations some kind humans had given him two planets previous: cured meat, crusty bread, some dried fruit, cheese.

Cedric waved his wand over the food - and it tripled in portions.

Ronon stared. “Is there anything you _can’t_ do with your wand?”

That made Cedric laugh. “You have no idea. I’m just a student, not even finished with school yet. There’s magic I’ve never even heard of, let alone thought of.”

“Is the food okay?” Ronon asked, prodding one of the bread rolls.

Cedric’s answer was to eat a piece of cheese. He’d kept the little wooden cup he made, and he could make water appear from nowhere with a flick of his wand.

“If you can do that, why did we go to the stream?”

“Fresh water tastes better,” Cedric said. “And a walk cleared my head. And I wanted to see if you’d follow me.”

“Why?”

“You wouldn’t have followed me if you didn’t need water yourself,” Cedric said. “You’re in a difficult way, I’m in a difficult way. You know your way around this solar system or galaxy or...I don’t know how far you can travel with what technology you have. I have magic. We can help each other.”

For all that Cedric talked too much and looked delicate and pretty, he wasn’t stupid.

Too trusting, perhaps.

But maybe he didn’t need to be strong if he had magic.

Ronon said, “Can I see your wand?”

Cedric said, “Don’t break it. There are only a few spells I can do wandless.” But he held it out.

Ronon accepted it carefully, held it. It felt like an ordinary piece of wood, of course sanded smooth and polished. He didn’t recognize the carvings on it. Were they letters, words, the sigil of Cedric’s family? His rank, like Ronon’s tattoo?

“How do you make it do things?”

“Well, I have magic,” Cedric.

“How did you get the magic?”

“I was born with it. Both of my parents have magic, and their parents before them,” Cedric said.

“I don’t think I have magic,” Ronon said.

Cedric laughed softly. “You’d know if you did. For someone without magic, that wand is just a stick.”

Ronon handed it back.

“So, Ronon Dex, what do you say? Are we partners?” Cedric asked. “I’ll help you outrun the Wraith, you’ll help me get home?”

Ronon nodded. He didn’t know if he could actually help Cedric find his home. He didn’t know if he actually wanted Cedric to find his home. Cedric was the first person in over a year who might be safe with Ronon - or safe in spite of him.

And then Ronon said, “Can you do healing?”

“Well, minor things - broken noses, bloody noses, small cuts and bruises. Why?”

“Because,” Ronon said, “the Wraith put a tracker in me. I’ve tried to cut it out, but -”

Before he could finish, he heard the sound of the Ring filling.

Cedric whipped around. “What was that?”

The high-pitched whine of a Wraith Dart filled the air.

“The Wraith are here,” Ronon said. “Come on.”

The Wraith would keep the gate open as long as possible so he couldn’t escape. He had to kill them. How many had they sent this time? Ronon was on his feet, blaster in hand, food forgotten.

Only Cedric waved his wand and the little leather sack with the food on it shrank till it was the size of a small handkerchief and Cedric shoved it into his pocket, and then he followed.

They crouched behind the tree, watching, waiting.

“Don’t move,” Cedric whispered. “They shouldn’t see us or hear us, but I don’t know if Dementors are immune to disillusionment and privacy charms.”

Ronon saw the familiar sickly yellow glow of a culling beam, and then three Wraith appeared, the masked kind, big and muscular and stupid. Drones.

“Bloody buggering fuck,” Cedric said, a curse Ronon had never heard before. “Those aren’t Dementors. What - what _are_ they?”

“They’re Wraith,” Ronon said flatly.

“Do Wraith have magic?”

“Sometimes they can trick your mind.”

Cedric swore under his breath. “They have Legilimency. Of course. And Occlumency isn’t something they teach in school.”

The Wraith turned toward them.

Dammit. They were immune to Cedric’s magic.

Ronon put a hand on his blaster, set it to kill.

One of the Wraiths raised its stunner.

Cedric had his wand up, shouting, “ _Protego!”_

The blast from the stunner dissolved against some kind of invisible barrier that was right in front of them.

Ronon stepped around Cedric, fired his blaster. All three Wraith went down. Ronon aimed his blaster at the Dart, fired again and again. Cedric aimed his wand at the Dart as well, shouting, and Ronon watched as the Dart burst into flames seemingly out of nowhere.

 

Ronon grabbed Cedric’s wrist, ran for the keypad to open the Ring.

“Where are we going?” Cedric asked.

The ground shook with an explosion when the Dart crashed into the trees.

“We need to wait for the Ring to empty, and then we can open the Ring and go to another planet,” Ronon said.

Cedric turned and stared at the Ring with wide eyes. He’d never seen a Ring before. _How_ had he gotten here?

“How do we make it empty?”

“The Wraith keep it open to stop us from using it. After half an hour it will empty on its own.” Ronon kept his gaze trained on the gate, wary of more Darts coming through.

Cedric swore again. Ronon spun and saw - the entire forest was on fire.

“Right. Fire. Forested planet. Bad choice,” Cedric said faintly.

“Can you put the fire out before it gets to us?” Ronon asked.

“Maybe.” Cedric pushed up his sleeves, raised his wand, and began to chant. Water streamed from his wand toward the fire, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

“Can’t you make it bigger?” The flames were rolling closer, a giant wall of gold and red and blue and white and orange death.

Cedric’s brow furrowed. “I don’t think I’m strong enough.”

“What if you use water that’s already here? Like from the stream?” Ronon asked.

Cedric’s eyes lit. “That’s brilliant!” He turned, gestured with his hand - and Ronon stared as the water from the Ring flowed out of the Ring and doused the flames.

Impossible. The water in the Ring wasn’t really water, no one got wet as they went through the Ring.

And yet the flames were out.

And the Ring was empty.

Ronon dialed the combination to another planet. The Ring filled with a whoosh. Ronon grabbed Cedric’s wrist and dragged him up the steps to the Ring platform, pushed him through.

On the other side of the Ring, the planet was still, silent. Dark.

Stars glittered in the sky.

Ronon looked up.

He knew these stars, these constellations. The Poet, The Warrior, the Laughing Dog, the Southern Ring. He was in his own solar system once more.

So close to home. And yet so far.

Cedric was wide-eyed, staring at the empty Ring with wide eyes. “What - what just happened? It was like Apparating, only times a thousand.”

“We traveled across the universe through the Ring,” Ronon said. “And now we’re on another planet.”

“Is this Sateda?”

Ronon looked out over the grassy plains, the mountains spiky along the horizon. “No. Sateda has cities. People. So many people.” Not as many people, not after the last culling. “Do you recognize any of the stars?”

Cedric tipped his head back, and Ronon’s gaze was drawn to the delicate line of his throat.

“No, I don’t think so. Of course, on another planet, with another orbit and rotation, they wouldn’t be in the same place, so -” He spun, trying to orient himself. Then he laid his wand flat on his palm. _“Point me_ Polaris.”

The wand spun and spun and spun and didn’t stop.

Cedric murmured, _Finite incantatem,_ and the wand stilled. His shoulders slumped, and he shook his head. “No, this isn’t my night sky.”

Ronon itched to go back to Sateda, to see anything of home - the barracks, the streets, the hospital (no, it was gone, all gone). He swallowed hard and said, “Okay. Let’s rest here if we can, then move on.”

Cedric nodded.

Ronon said, “I’ll take first watch.”

Cedric said, “No need. I set a ward - a type of magic that acts as an alarm, if someone comes through the Ring.”

“Well, let’s find somewhere we’ll stay warm and dry.”

Cedric laughed softly. “I can cast Warming Charms and Waterproofing Charms and anything else you need to stay comfortable. But I can’t get myself home.”

Ronon turned to him. “I can’t go home either. And I promised you we would look together. One planet at a time. But we need each other. You said it yourself.” He caught Cedric by the shoulders, looked into his eyes. “You almost died, but you didn’t. I almost died - many times - but I didn’t. We both got second chances we didn’t deserve. Let’s do something with them.”

Cedric nodded, but he looked frightened again, and Ronon remembered that even though they were about the same age, Cedric was still a student, probably living with his parents or other students, had had a sheltered existence. Ronon had been a soldier since he was sixteen. He’d survived a Wraith culling and countless battles with smaller bands of Wraith who were chasing him.

Ronon leaned in and kissed him.

Cedric kissed him back, soft and first, then faster, harder, more desperate. He pulled back right when Ronon reached for him, to tug him closer.

Cedric shook his head, laughed wetly. “Back home, I’d never be allowed to - not with another boy. Apparently it took me almost dying and being flung halfway across the galaxy or universe or whatever to have the chance to - you’re so gorgeous.” He leaned in and kissed Ronon again.

Ronon knew the rush of adrenaline and hormones, had had more than his fair share of post-battle encounters, mutual reassurance and life-affirming connection. He hadn’t made love since he’d lost Melena.

And then he realized. This would be Cedric’s first time.

However casual Ronon could be about how he used his body, someone’s first time was important. Ronon’s partner for his first time had been very kind and gentle, guiding him, teaching him. They’d gone through all the traditions - scented bath, massaging each other, learning each other’s bodies before they finally partook. His partner had had a large, comfortable bed with soft sheets.

Cedric deserved better than the hard-packed dirt and itchy grass of a foreign planet.

Ronon softened the kiss, slowed it down, and finally pulled back. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, because he didn’t plan on it. “But not here. Not like this.”

Cedric nodded, breathless and flushed. “I could transfigure us a bed. Sheets. Sofas. A roaring fire. All the comforts of home. D’you want a dog? I could transfigure us a dog.”

“Really?” Ronon asked.

Cedric nodded again. “Watch.”

He cast a ward over the Ring first, so they would be alerted if anyone came through. Then he pointed his wand at two trees, chanting, singing. Ronon watched as the boughs of the trees lengthened, met, twined, merged, formed a little shelter. But then the roots were growing, expanding, shifting, and there was a bed. Cedric turned the grass into blankets and sheets, and stones into pillows, and they had a low table to sit at, and he took the crumpled cloth out of his pocket and unshrunk it and the food, and he created two more cups, and he filled them with water.

He sat on the edge of the bed, and he took off his shoes, shed his shirt.

He created a bowl out of some more leaves, filled it with water, created more cloth, washed himself. He looked up at Ronon.

“Are you going to join me?”

“Yes.”

Ronon stripped off eagerly, but he made sure his weapons were within arm’s reach. He washed himself, and he drank water, and he ate his fill.

And then he turned to Cedric. “Do you still want to?”

Cedric’s answer was another kiss.

Ronon was sorry they weren’t doing this the right way, that they didn’t have the time to learn each other, enjoy each other slowly, but he did his best to teach Cedric, guide him, show him the pleasure to be given and received.

It had been ages since Ronon had slept in a bed under familiar stars, and when they were finished, they lay together in the soft, cool sheets, tucked close.

“Could we stay here, just the two of us?” Cedric asked sleepily. “If I go home, I’ll never get to have this, not again.”

“We can’t stay here,” Ronon said. “The Wraith will come for me.”

“For us,” Cedric said. “I’ll stay with you.”

“I promised I’d help you,” Ronon said.

Cedric looked up at him. “You know, if we did get home, I bet one of our Mediwitches could take the tracker out of you. And then we could go wherever we wanted. As long as I knew how to get home, how to visit my family - we could stay on Sateda. This is all right on Sateda, isn’t it?”

Ronon nodded.

“Then we have a plan. Get me home. Get the tracker out of you. Get you home.”

That was it.

A plan.

They fell asleep.

Woke when the alarm on the Ring was tripped. Cedric made everything vanish - the bed, table, dishes, linens - and together they waged war against the Wraith, Cedric shielding Ronon from the stunner blasts with his magic, sometimes even using his magic to push the Wraith back or knock them off their feet.

He could also disappear and reappear in an instant, so when Ronon told him to get to the Ring, he did.

He emptied the Ring with his magic, and then he disappeared, reappeared by Ronon, grabbed him, and then they both vanished.

It almost felt like going through the Ring, but then they were beside the keypad and Ronon was putting in the combination for a planet in another solar system.

As soon as the Ring filled and then stabilized, they ran through.

It was day on that planet when they arrived, and it was inhabited, but Cedric used his magic to make them unseen, unheard, and once again they made camp in the forest, Cedric using his magic to make a comfortable bower for them.

They started to strategize. Cedric made himself a notebook and a pen to write with, and they logged each planet they went to (Ronon did his best to take them to planets with different skies). If they had to leave a planet before they got to see its night sky, they usually retreated across several previous planets so they could go back once the Wraith had cleared.

Ronon taught Cedric hand-to-hand skills.

Cedric taught Ronon how to cook, because he preferred to conjure up cooking implements but cook real food when he could.

Ronon challenged himself, tested himself, let himself trust Cedric, care for him.

Cedric challenged himself, tried magic he’d only ever heard about before, made new magic.

He trusted Ronon easily, loved him.

Ronon felt like a liar when he finally said it back, because he meant it, but he was starting to think they’d never see Earth’s stars, and he wanted to keep Cedric to himself.

He had almost given in a dozen times when Cedric asked for a dog. A dog could be useful, would be a pack animal, and also a guard, and also companionship.

And then they were hiding on a planet in the dark, getting ready to search the night sky when the Wraith came, and behind them a man who hunted them, a Wraith Eater, more dreaded than a Wraith Worshiper, and then more men through the Ring. They flew a strange spaceship, and they wore uniforms and carried firearms, spoke to each other with mostly military familiarity.

“Want me to put them to sleep?” Cedric asked.

Two of the men wandered away from the others, who were guarding the Ring.

The soldier of the pair, said, “You know, when they told me I'd be traveling to another galaxy, visiting strange new worlds, defending humanity against unimaginable alien threats, this just is not what I pictured.”

The other man with him, wearing a similar but different-colored uniform, said, “We could be saving Earth right here, right now, Major.”

Cedric went still. Earth.

Ronon’s heart crawled into his throat. This was it. This was where he lost Cedric.

But Cedric reached out, curled his hand through Ronon’s, and said, “Come on. Let’s go get your tracker removed.”

They stepped into the clearing, and the soldier aimed his weapon at them, and they raised their hands, explained Cedric was from Earth, had ended up in this place by accident, and they wanted help to get him home.

The soldier, Major Lorne, radioed his comrades, and Ronon let them take his blaster, because Cedric kept his wand up his sleeve in a little leather sheath to protect it, and as long as Cedric had his wand they would be all right.

The non-soldier, Dr. Parrish, stumbled ahead of them, babbling and nervous.

They stepped out from under the trees and into the clearing at the Ring where the spaceship was parked. Ronon looked up at the sky, where the clouds had finally dispersed from where they’d been covering the stars, and he decided that whatever the stars looked like, as long as he had Cedric, he was home.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Joni Mitchell's A Case of You.


End file.
